The Best Rainy Day Weddings in Vogue
It’s a well-known old wives tale that rain on your wedding day offers good luck—a symbol of both cleansing and renewal. And, after a spin through the Vogue wedding archives, it’s hard not to agree. “It just made the day that much more special,” Oleema Miller said of her rainy Oahu nuptials, where she walked barefoot in the mud down her aisle. “There is a line in the song [Van Morrison’s “Sweet Thing”] that goes, ‘We shall walk and talk in gardens all misty wet.’ I think maybe somehow I manifested these settings with that song, and it just played perfectly with my emotions, with our surroundings, and with all of the people gathered we love most.”
There was a biblical downpour during Constance Chamberlyne-Tankerville and Arthur Oke’s reception in the French countryside. (Their wedding coordinator told them it was the most rain they’d ever seen.) Yet, Constance says it only made their evening more “magical.” She adds, “We just gripped each other tightly and laughed our way through it.”
Some couples even purposefully picked locations for their moody ambience: take Anthony Kendal and Rossa Prendergast, who wed at the gothic Lismore Castle amid what they describe as a “soft Irish drizzle.” For those where rain was unexpected, most embraced the visual impact of umbrellas: Mary Macgill ordered 200 white parasols for her guests to hold up during her vows, whereas Lauren Rodriguez describes the “sea of umbrellas” she saw while marrying on her New York City stoop. “It was just right for us,” she says.
Below, the best rainy day weddings in Vogue.
Doug Falter1/10Oleema Miller and Bryan Phillips
“While we were waiting in the trailer where I’d put my dress on and do final touch-ups, a friend let me know that there were puddles and mud everywhere and there was no way I would be able to walk down the mountain without slipping,” Oleema Miller said of her rainy Oahu wedding. “It was at that point I decided I would go barefoot to make the trek possible—and then never put on a pair of shoes the entire evening.”
Photo: Braedon Flynn2/10Jamie and Nico Mizrahi
“It rained all day—I hear that’s good luck,” Jamie Mizrahi said of her and Nico Mizrahi’s wedding in Aspen.
Chad Moore3/10Sandy Liang and Dorian Booth
“It felt cozy and dreamy—a very special moment for me,” designer Sandy Liang said about the moody, mercurial weather at her Maine wedding.
Meredith Heuer4/10Sophie Marx and David Connor
“The weather forecast decided to threaten rain all weekend—as if this coastline needed more drama,” Sophie Marx said of her wedding in Big Sur. The couple’s guests watched their ceremony under clear umbrellas.
Photo: Miles and Miles5/10Mary Macgill and Terrence Breschi
“I was fine about the weather until the week before, when I stress-ordered 200 white umbrellas for our guests who would have to traverse the park overlooking the Hudson and Catskill mountains to get to our reception tent,” Mary Macgill said of her fall wedding in upstate New York. The functional accessory ended up only enhancing her photos.
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